Author's Note: Holy crap, it's been months since I've updated this thing. This is hands down the worst delay between chapters I've ever had. It especially sucks because much of this chapter had already been written down for that long and I just never got around to finishing it. DinoJake has nothing on my laziness (If you don't know who that is, he's the author of a Halo/Mass Effect crossover called The Last Spartan; it's pretty good and I'd recommend checking it out).
Well, everybody's probably been waiting for long enough, so let's get to it.
Chapter 12
The turian sergeant stood authoritatively among his men, keeping a sharp vigil over his subordinates. Around him, his fellow soldiers were checking their weapons, setting up defensive barricades, and taking stock of their surroundings. To his left and right, two turians were manning a pair of heavy turrets, ready to open fire at a moment's notice. Peeling his eyes away from his men for the moment, the sergeant turned around and looked in the distance behind him; a few hundred yards away was a large mass accelerator cannon, aimed toward the sky and prepared to shoot down any ship that got within its range. Directly behind the sergeant was a set of stairs leading downward into the rock, and at the bottom of the stairs was a metal door. Behind the door was the underground passageway which led to the defense cannon's generator.
Shortly after a team of engineers managed to get this particular cannon operational, the sergeant and his men were stationed at the entrance to the underground generator in order to guard it from enemies. That was roughly an hour ago, and so far there were no signs of any hostiles. Nevertheless, the sergeant was still on edge. With the current situation, how couldn't he be?
"Sergeant," a voice spoke from behind. The officer turned around to see an armored turian facing him.
"Corporal," the sergeant acknowledged. "Give me your report."
"No sign of any hostiles at the moment, but we've lost contact with one of our teams to the south. It's been twenty minutes since they last reported in, and all we got was silence when we tried to hail them just now."
"I thought we agreed on regular status updates every ten minutes. You're just now telling me this?" One could tell by his tone of voice that the sergeant was irritated.
"Um… well, we assumed that it was simply radio interference and – "
"Corporal, the Hierarchy doesn't pay you for you to assume anything about a situation! In fact, I'm pretty sure there's an old human saying about that."
"Sorry, sir! Won't happen again."
"See that it doesn't. Get a squad and head to that outpost to see what the hell's going on over there. Assume hostile presence."
"Yes sir."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Move!"
The corporal hurriedly marched off after receiving his orders, wanting to avoid further chastisement. Shaking his head, the sergeant turned and walked in the other direction. He needed to go check on supplies anyhow, a welcome distraction from the hell going on elsewhere. As the sergeant walked to the other side of the outpost, he did not notice a curious presence on the nearby ridge. High above the area and hardly noticeable was a small spherical drone hovering just a few feet off the ground. For several minutes it floated there, nobody even noticing that it was there. And then, with a few quiet beeps, the drone spun around and sped away from outpost and out of sight.
"Commander, how much longer do we have to sit here?" one of the stormtroopers complained. "It feels like we're just wasting time."
"I already told you, private," Cody responded irritably. "We don't go anywhere until the recon droid gets back. Once we're certain that we're not walking straight into an ambush, we'll go."
Cody and his fellow stormtroopers were currently situated next to a large outcropping, and several of the white-armored troopers were sitting down checking their equipment. The commander had sent a couple of his men further ahead to serve as lookouts. The squad was roughly a quarter of a click away from the AA position, and was currently resting and waiting on the return of a recon droid that had been sent ahead to scout out the area.
"With all due respect," the private continued, "the longer we sit here, the more men we lose to those fighters pounding our forces out there."
"And if we all get killed, we're not going to be helping that situation, will we?" Cody replied. "I'm the commander here, and what I say goes, so shut up and follow orders. Understood?"
The private let out a defeated sigh. "Yes sir."
By the Force, I hate these recruits, Cody thought to himself. They're a bunch of incompetent fools, all of them. Nowhere near as effective as the old GAR. I'd sacrifice this entire squad save for Boil just to get one genuine clone trooper. It'd save me a lot of headaches.
Cody was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of one of the lookouts calling in over the radio. "Commander," he said. "The recon droid is coming back."
"Roger that," Cody replied.
Less than thirty seconds later, Cody could see the spherical silhouette of the recon droid rise above the nearby hill. The small droid sped over to the stormtrooper squad, coming to a halt right in front of Cody. Hovering a few feet off the ground, the droid shone a hologram in front of the commander. It was a layout of the nearby turian defense position.
"Okay, let's see what we've got here," Cody said, mostly to himself. "Looks like a well-defended position. Plenty of barricades, around two dozen turians."
"They've got a couple of defensive turrets up as well," Boil, who was standing to Cody's right, added.
"Those are going to be a problem if we don't take them out fast. Here." Cody pointed his finger at a ridge overlooking the area. "A few troopers can get up on that ridge. A couple well-placed rockets will deal with those turrets quickly."
"That ridge will also make for a good sniping position. Look, there's something behind those turrets." Boil pointed to something behind the turret positions. It looked like a staircase leading downward into the rock.
"Looks like a passage underground."
"Any idea where it goes?"
"This position is pretty close to the defense cannon, and it's pretty heavily guarded. If I were to wager a guess, I'd say the generator for that gun must run underground, and that passageway leads right to it."
"Sounds about right. So we go in, hook some charges up to that generator, head back up to the surface and blow it to hell?"
"That's the plan. We'll send some troopers up onto that ridge to take out the turrets and give us some covering fire. The rest of us will attack head on."
"Got it, boss."
Cody raised his hand to his helmet as his comlink went off. "Commander, we've got a patrol inbound from the north," radioed one of the lookouts.
"How many hostiles?" Cody asked.
"Around half a dozen. They haven't spotted us, but they'll be on your position within a couple of minutes."
"Acknowledged, trooper." Cody deactivated his comlink as he turned to address his underlings. "We're too exposed out here; everybody behind those rocks, now!"
The stormtroopers swiftly obeyed their commander's orders, scurrying to take cover behind a bunch of large boulders. Once he was behind one of the boulders, Cody turned his attention to the blaster rifle he was currently carrying, slapping in a fresh energy pack and flipping off the safety. A minute passed in silence before Cody's comlink went off again.
"The patrol is about fifty meters from your position, commander," the lookout said. This prompted Cody to peek his head around the boulder he was behind. Sure enough, coming up over the nearby hill was a six-man turian squad, carrying an assortment of assault rifles and shotguns. Upon seeing them, Cody brought his head out of sight.
"If they spot us, they might alert the outpost ahead that we're here," Cody whispered over the comms. "We'll have to surprise them; take them out before they have a chance to radio for backup. Blasters at the ready, everyone."
"Understood, commander," Boil answered.
Cody could feel his heart pounding in his chest as the seconds ticked by. He tightened his grip on his blaster as the turians drew closer to their position. After what felt like minutes, Cody could hear the sound of footsteps fairly close, the ground crunching underneath the turians' boots.
"Now!" Cody yelled. Like a coiled spring, Cody leapt from his hiding place and turned to fire at the turian squad. The other ten troopers with him did so simultaneously, sending a hail of red energy bolts at the patrol. A couple of the turians tried to raise their weapons to fire back, but they were all gunned down swiftly underneath the onslaught. Within a few seconds, all the turians lay dead on the ground, their armor smoking and charred from the heat of the blasters.
"Clear," Cody affirmed, lowering his weapon. The rest of the squad emerged from their hiding places.
"All hostiles confirmed dead," one of the lookouts confirmed over the radio. "Doesn't look like the turians are sending any more out. Nice work, commander."
"We're heading out," Cody replied, not acknowledging the other trooper's compliment. "Rendezvous with us at the gun position. Stay out of sight."
"Will do, sir."
As the comlink cut off, Cody turned to his squad. "No use standing around here any longer. Move out."
Ten minutes later, Boil was nearing the ridge that overlooked the turian outpost. He had volunteered to link up with the lookouts on the ridge while Cody led the rest of the squad in a frontal assault on the enemy. He kept a firm grip on his E-11s sniper rifle as he slowly crept to the ridge. Walking up an incline to the top, he saw the two lookouts – wearing standard scout trooper armor – in prone positions overlooking the turian position. They were both holding rocket launchers at the moment, and there were two sniper rifles lying between them as well.
"Nice of you to join us, Boil," one of the troopers said jokingly.
"I was just admiring the scenery, lieutenant," Boil joked in kind.
"The commander just radioed. He and the others are in cover positions in some rocks to our left. Turians don't know we're here, so we've got the element of surprise."
"Well then let's have a look, shall we?"
Boil then went into a prone position and crawled to the edge of the ridge right beside one of the scout troopers. He brought his sniper rifle out in front of him and looked through the scope. Sure enough, the turian soldiers below them were busy checking weapons and ammo supplies, setting up barricades, and monitoring comm traffic. Boil saw two soldiers manning a pair of turrets, just like in the hologram they reviewed earlier. The turians had absolutely no idea that they were being watched.
"Are those rocket launchers loaded, trooper?" Boil asked.
"Loaded and ready to fire, sir," the scout answered.
"Then get ready for action, boys. This is where the fun begins."
Cody poked his head out from behind the rock he was using as cover to look ahead. In front of him was the turian outpost that guarded the underground generator for the defense cannon, which was highly visible in the distance. He could see the turians walking around, attending to their duties and seemingly oblivious to his presence.
Guess they haven't figured out their scouts were taken out, Cody thought. Looks like we've got the jump on them. Cody ducked back behind his cover to avoid detection and glanced behind him. Nine of his men were nearby, having taken up cover positions behind some rocks just as he had. Despite their faces being unreadable behind their helmets, Cody could tell by their body language that they were tense, and a couple seemed downright nervous. Blasted recruits. Can't even keep their nerves in check during a mission.
"Commander, this is Boil," said a voice over the comlink. "I'm with the lookouts and we're currently on the ridge. Just give the order to raise hell and we'll lay down some covering fire."
"Roger that, Boil," the commander replied. "Wait for my go, and then take out those turrets; that's your first priority. My team will engage from the front while you give us support."
"Acknowledged."
As the comlink cut off, Cody peeked over his cover again to see what they were up against. The two defensive turrets were currently manned, though they wouldn't be a problem for long. There looked to be roughly eighteen soldiers; the hologram that Cody saw before indicated that there were two dozen, but with the stormtroopers having killed the six-man scouting party before, these were what remained.
We're outnumbered still, Cody thought. But we've got the element of surprise.
"Blasters at the ready, men," Cody said to those that were with him. The troopers tightened their grips on their weapons, and a couple slapped in fresh energy packs. Cody raised his hand to his helmet as he raised Boil over the comlink. "You have the green light, Boil; engage."
"With pleasure, sir," Boil responded. No sooner were those words said when a pair of rockets soared through the air from the ridge, impacting on the two defense turrets. The explosions sent a hail of shrapnel everywhere, and the soldiers manning the turrets were killed instantly. Almost immediately, the remaining troopers turned their attention to the ridge where Boil and the scouts were, forcing the stormtroopers to duck their heads as the turians opened fire.
"Weapons free!" Cody ordered. The commander and his squad swiftly emerged from the rocks and began firing their blasters at the turian soldiers. Three of them went down before the rest began scrambling for cover. Cody pushed forward, laying down suppressing fire with his rifle as he moved to another piece of cover, killing another turian as he did so. As the hostiles' return fire forced him to duck underneath the barricade he was using as cover, one of the enemy troopers threw a grenade in the direction of his squad. The grenade detonated, sending three stormtroopers flying.
As Cody was watching this, he felt a pair of gloved alien hands grab his upper arms. Before he had a chance to react, he was violently pulled over the barricade and shoved onto the ground. As he recovered from the shock, Cody was faced with the sight of an armored turian trooper looking down on him, pinning the commander's arms to the ground with one arm and a knee. The turian raised his other arm and his omni-tool activated, the projection of hard light forming into the shape of a blade. Just before the alien was able to end Cody's life, a blaster bolt struck the back of his head, killing him instantly and causing him to fall over.
Thank you Boil, Cody thought to himself as he pushed the turian off of him. As he straightened up, he noticed several of the other troopers turning to fire on him. Thinking fast, Cody grabbed the assault rifle strapped to the dead turian's back and fired back at the nearest enemy. To his disappointment, Cody was treated to the sight of blue energy appearing around the soldier as his kinetic barriers blocked the bullets. Cody cursed as the return fire from the hostiles forced him to take cover again by a nearby crate. As he did so, one of the stormtroopers on the ridge fired his rocket launcher once again, killing four of the turians that were firing on Cody seconds before.
"Keep pushing forward!" Cody ordered, leaning out of cover and firing at the turians with the assault rifle he'd acquired, managing to kill one of them whose shields were weakened from the rocket explosion. The rest of his squad moved forward near his position while laying down suppressing fire on the remaining six hostiles. As the stormtroopers moved in, one of the turians rose out of cover for a split second and did something that greatly surprised them. Very briefly, an aura of blue energy appeared around the trooper, making him look as though he was surrounded by a faint blue mist. Before any of the squad could react, the turian thrust his arm forward, sending a blue ball of energy right into the middle of the stormtroopers. The sphere of energy seemed to bend the space around it, and looked like a miniature black hole. Almost immediately, four of the stormtroopers near the sphere of energy were lifted off of their feet, dangling helplessly in the air around it.
"Let 'em have it!" the trooper yelled. The turian soldiers immediately emerged from cover and opened fire on the stormtroopers floating around in mid-air. All four of them were riddled with bullets, unable to resist. With over half his men dead, Cody had had enough of the turians' games. Leaning out from his cover, he pulled a thermal detonator out from his belt before throwing it at the remaining troopers. As soon as it landed, one of the troopers yelled "grenade!" before they all scattered. One of the turians right next to the explosive was unable to escape, dying as pieces of shrapnel tore through his body. The other turians scrambled to get to cover as the stormtroopers once again resumed firing, though one of them was killed by a sniper bolt from one of the scouts on the ridge.
"Mop up the last of them!" Cody ordered, moving from his cover towards a spot where one of the last enemy troopers was taking cover. The turian peeked his head out and was about to open fire on the commander before Cody quickly pulled out his blaster pistol and killed him with a well-placed headshot. Two other turians occupying the same piece of cover rose up and were about to open fire on Cody, but another rocket from one of the scouts on the ridge quickly killed both of them. Just one more to go, Cody thought to himself. "We've got one more left, men! Find the scaly fierfek!"
As it turned out, Cody's orders wouldn't be hard to follow. Immediately after he spoke, a blurry figure whooshed past his field of vision. He turned his head to see the last of the turians flying through the air, his armor apparently housing a pair of jet boots. Moving at high speed, the trooper rammed right into one of the few remaining stormtroopers, knocking him backward and causing him to smash into a rock. The turian turned around and was about to repeat the same feat when Cody and the rest of the squad opened fire on the lone figure, who used his jet boots to dodge into cover.
Cody and the other stormtrooper still standing near him quickly moved forward to where the turian was hiding. As they moved closer, the trooper rose from his cover and once again activated his jet boots. Before Cody and his squadmate could fire, the turian rushed forward again, slamming into Cody's compatriot and causing him to fall onto his back on the dirt. At this point Cody was extremely annoyed with this turian; he knew he had to act quickly or else the flying trooper would simply go back into cover, and then Cody would be on the receiving end of his next attack. In a daring move, the commander ran forward and jumped onto the turian's back. The trooper was momentarily stunned by his opponent's action, then quickly responded by furiously trying to shake Cody off. When Cody wouldn't budge, the turian began jetpacking left and right in an effort to pry the stormtrooper loose. Holding on for dear life, Cody reached for his pistol, aimed it squarely in the back of the turian's right knee and pulled the trigger. The turian yelled in pain as he bent down on one knee, the other one no longer able to support his weight. Seizing his opportunity, Cody aimed his pistol right at the turian's temple and fired. The alien slumped to the ground dead, and a long silence followed.
"Area clear, commander," Boil stated over the comlink, breaking the silence.
"Good," Cody replied, panting from the level of exertion he was just subjected to. "Go ahead and rappel down here so we can get to the generator."
"Roger that."
Cody took a moment to take a good look at the carnage that surrounded him. All of the turians were dead, of course, but so were seven of his men. The ground was stained with blood, both the blue blood of the turians and the red blood of his comrades, and dead bodies and body parts littered the area. Cody bent his head down and let out a long sigh. Turning around, he saw that one of the stormtroopers that had been knocked down by the turian with jet boots was getting back on his feet. The one that had been smashed into a rock was on his hands and knees, groaning loudly. Cody walked over to the soldier and bent down until he was at eye level.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"I think I've got a couple of broken ribs," the trooper replied, moaning. "Damn it, that hurt."
"Can you get back on your feet, soldier?"
"I think so. Just give me a second." With that, the injured stormtrooper stood on one of his legs, followed by the other one. Wincing in pain, the white-armored trooper pushed himself off the ground until he was standing straight up.
At least one of these recruits isn't a coward, Cody thought, impressed by the trooper's persistence. With a nod, he handed the private back his blaster rifle, which he took with vigor. Cody turned around as Boil and the two scouts approached him.
"We've taken pretty heavy casualties," Boil remarked. "Seven dead, and it looks like the private here is injured."
"Doesn't change our objective," Cody replied. "We came here to take out that defense cannon, and that's what we're gonna do."
"Understood, sir. I just hope we don't come across more resistance underground. Those damn turians are tough as a gundark."
"Did you see when one of them fired that ball of energy at us?" the private asked. "What the hell was that, anyway?"
"I think I read about that in the intel report," Cody answered. "Biotics. Based on what we learned from that captured turian captain, some individuals in this galaxy are able to manipulate dark energy, use it as a weapon in battle. I'm guessing that's what we saw just now."
"So some of these aliens can bend the fabric of space in combat?" Boil asked incredulously. "What, are we fighting Jedi?"
"Don't be ridiculous Boil, they're obviously not that tough. If one of those turians was a Jedi, we'd all be dead."
"How do you figure?" the private asked.
"Let's just say I've got personal experience with Jedi," the commander replied. I did serve under one, after all…
"Well, there's no use standing around here talking about freaks controlling dark energy," Boil interrupted. "We've got a cannon to blow up."
"Right," Cody said. "Private, you stay here and keep a lookout. If those scaly fierfeks send reinforcements, radio us immediately."
"Yes sir!" the private acknowledged.
Cody bent down to pick up one of the blaster rifles lying on the ground, slapped in a new energy pack, then turned to address the remainder of his squad. "The rest of you follow me. Let's move out."
Author's Note: Well, at this point I believe it's official: I freaking suck balls at updating my crap consistently. At this rate, I'll only have a quarter of this thing done by the time I earn my Master's degree. I seriously need to step up and get the ball rolling again.
Hopefully not everybody is angry at me over my laziness. In any event, you can critique this chapter or vent your frustrations by hitting the review button below. Either way, it helps.